


Fair Play

by redfenix



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Gen, redshipper, woe is me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-01-01
Updated: 2003-01-01
Packaged: 2019-08-07 02:04:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redfenix/pseuds/redfenix





	Fair Play

How dare they?

That was my first thought as I stepped into the sparsely decorated bedroom. How dare they lie there in complete and utter bliss while I was so miserable? I could see the smug satisfaction playing lightly over their lips as I stood there over them.

Nothing bothered to stop me and make me think I was doing something wrong by standing here, intruding so callously into their domain while they slept. This was, after all, my old room.

The ancient wood of the floorboard creaked beneath me as I clenched my hands and stepped to the foot of their bed. No, correction, my bed. My old bed where she and I had spent endless nights. A spot we could both be just ourselves with no pretenses or formalities. 

Someplace where everything was different for us. 

I had buried her the previous year. I stood over her grave and cried until there was nothing left. Until there was nothing but a hollow emptiness inside of me that I was sure was never going to be filled. I had forced her there this time. The responsibility lay solely with me and the stupidity I had let it consume me.

I was torn, upset and angry with the world months before she passed. I felt like she had turned her back on me, just like everyone else had. So I had turned to the first one who had acted like they gave a damn about me.

Emma.

I had felt guilty for carrying on like a teenager before Jean was killed; carousing about with Emma like hormone driven kids without regard for others. Even after my dead wife lay freshly in the ground it had continued. But I didn’t care. Fuck the world and the horse it rode in on. I deserved to be happy and live life just as I once had. Emma gave me that when Jean didn’t. Yeah, it was sick and twisted and yes, I agree, I’m a jackass. Don’t worry; I’ve said it all to myself countless times before now. Tell me something I don’t know.

I was paying for it now though. This was my punishment for such a deep and hurtful betrayal. She’d come back. Jean had risen again, just like everyone had thought. Everyone but me apparently. I was too smitten with the blonde in my arms to see it. 

Jean had found me in bed, just a few short weeks ago. But it wasn’t just me, if you catch my drift. And we hadn’t exactly been sleeping in that bed either.

She had raged. Understandably so. Can’t say I blame her personally. I’m standing here on the edge of that fury myself. She went right where I knew she’d go and he accepted her even though he knew why. Why she was there with him now. He was second choice for her and he didn’t seem to give a damn.

Problem was I couldn’t stop giving a damn.

A light breeze came in through the slightly open window, lifting a few strands of her red hair off the pillow. Her soft moan filled the room and she shifted slightly against him. 

They were pressed together, her back to his chest. She lay at an angle so that her left shoulder blade was against the bed, her right pressed up against him. His arm was hidden by her mass of auburn hair save for his left hand which snaked around to cup her right breast, cradling it in his palm like it was his most prized possession.

Their other hands lay intertwined along her pelvis with both of their fingers curving to disappear between her legs. The sheets on the bed lay crumpled around their feet, leaving them bared for all to see. I flinched as he shifted slightly, his fingers pressing against her and her mouth curved into a sly smile.

Is this what it was like to have your world crumble to your feet in only a matter of seconds? I’d known before I stepped foot in this room, knew I’d find them here but I am still only human, despite my mutation. Seeing this just made me feel like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I deserved it, I knew, but that didn’t make the sting any less painful.

Had Jean felt like that when she stumbled across Emma and me that night? Bursting in the room with a smile on her face that reflected the world of possibilities that lay stretched out before her. It had quickly morphed into the crestfallen, brokenhearted look that I will never forget on her face. The same one that was reflected in her eyes when she found the two of use there, sweat still slicking our skin from sex. 

Rhythmic breathing echoed in the room again, signaling their return to dreamland. Thousands of thoughts of revenge ran unchecked in my head. With the barest of movements, a simple lift of glasses I wore at night and I could blow him clear across the room.

I knew I couldn’t kill him. Any damage would heal within a matter of moments. 

Maybe that’s why the idea appeals to me so much.


End file.
